Paris Founders Event, New York Edition

Rude Baguette is a fantastic English language media covering the French startup scene and I’ve been enjoying the Paris Founders Night since relocating to Paris last year. This one was especially cool, as it was a special New York edition held at Hotel de Ville – the Paris City Hall.

Read about the official event report to learn about the five startups that were featured in this edition.

The PFE format is very well thought out. The highlights are the startup pitches that are carefully selected from a long audition process. What’s special is that they focus purely on product demos. No talk about funding, business plans, or concept videos. Just five cool live demos. Refreshing, right?

And in between, the always exuberant Liam Boogar facilitates discussions between a group of high profile experts on a specific topic. For example, we heard four French founders openly sharing both the gory and glorious sides of setting up shop in New York. Last year, there were 4-5 founders of the most successful French Kickstarter hardware campaigns on stage at the same time. Even the sponsor sessions are interesting because the person representing the brand has a personal commitment, and not just an organizational one…

Liam wrapped up the event by touching upon some of the insights from the latest European Digital City Index to detail how the French ecosystem has grown up and where we might be going next. You can read more about that in this article.